With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

PRNK Goes Nuclear

So lil' Kim has exploded a nuke, or maybe not, who can be sure? There have been lots of interesting articles and blogs with much to say on this subject. I think it's important that we not over react, as it seems that's what Pyongyang wants. The Atlantic has an excellent piece by Robert Kaplan on the complexities of dealing with and underestimating Kim Jong Il. Michael Rubin over at the Corner chimes in with this nifty little tidbit:

Could I just chime in and say that I hope that diplomats consider whether or not Pyongyang was successful or not besides the point? Just as I’ve always felt that the penalty for attempted murder should be the same as for murder on the grounds that poor aim shouldn’t be a mitigating factor, so too should we focus more on Pyongyang’s goals rather than their implementation.

True enough. Will this situation cause Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and others in the region to go nuclear? Will that be good or bad for us in the long and short runs? I have no frickin clue. I am pretty confident that North Korea is a bad actor who uses the threat of nuclear instability to mau mau the international community into financing their screwed up armpit of a country. But the most important thing to do at a moment like this is to sort out is who was having gay e-sex in congress and who knew about it and when. Shades of Gary Condit in August of 2001.

3 comments:

A couple of years ago I thought there was no way China would let this go this far precisely because the next logical step would be for Japan and Taiwan to go nuclear. So here we are now contemplating a nuclear NorKor, Taiwan and Japan... I just do not get the hand China's playing.

The only real option for dealing with NorKor is for China and South Korea to start putting the screws to them. They are the only countries with sufficient leverage to make the NorKors take notice. I realize both countries are concerned about potential refugee flows should NorKor collapse but how is the current situation the better choice? What the hell are they waiting for? Does anyone want a proliferation of nukes accross Northeast Asia?